August 13, 2011

The cotton fields at Paint Creek are empty this year because of the fearsome drought. But amid the dust and searing heat, beneath a vast blue sky, the farmland of Mr Perry’s youth is still being worked. Life here is as hard as ever.

At the school, from which Mr Perry graduated third in a class of 13 in 1968, Don Ballard, the school superintendent, reflected on the place that had made Mr Perry what he is.

“We had farm values,” he said “We got up, we worked and we knew what the dollar meant. There was no squandering money here there and yonder. Everybody struggled.

“You’d have a good crop one year and maybe a bad crop the next. Rick Perry understands being up and being down and that if you’re down you’ve got to work to get back up. Most of the families round here want their kids to be better and have more than what they had growing up.” Mr Perry is descended from Confederate veterans of the Civil War on both sides. In an old interview, his grandfather Hoyt Perry, who died in 1992, recalled how his father arrived at Paint Creek in 1887.

“The whole country was covered with prairie dogs. The buffaloes were killed in about the 1870s. I did a lot of farming with the mules. We made our own toys. We made a wheel with an axle and rolled it around.” The future Texas governor spent his teens living in a brick bungalow that his father built a field away from the wooden frame home. J.R. “Ray” Perry and his wife Amelia, now in their mid-80s, still reside there.

123 comments:

I guess I'll have to research Perry more thoroughly. The fact that he was a Democrat just 22 years ago gives me pause. (Yeah, yeah, I know, Reagan started out a Democrat too.)

But let's face it: By the time they hold a primary in my state (Ohio) it will all be decided anyway; and as long as he has a pulse and he's to the right of Hillary Clinton, I'll vote for him over Obama.

I was really hoping that the field would remain more open and Thune could be convinced to jump in.

The Wapo is already highlighting Governor Perry as the devil incarnate. Alec MacGillis claims he will either: (a) kill us all with pollution, or (b) if we get sick, we'll all be screwed due to lack of health insurance, (c) but at least when we are dead, the Governor will pray for us while toting his sidearm.

Perry must scare the beejeezers out of the left. I liked him before the hatchet job, I like him even more now.

so he wants a constitutional ban on abortion. That will really bring in the independent vote...NOT. Why do these candidates have to bring up social issues when there are so many economic and fiscal issues that they can run on. Romney is the only moderate one who can decimate Obama. Getting rid of Obama should be our number one goal in order to recall Obamacare, epa fiat over co2 regulations, redo Frank/Dodd, etc.

Perry's being a Democrat when he was young only means he has a brain, but it is a good portrait of him by Harnden.

But Pasta's right; I'd like to hear more about him.

Jeff in Oklahoma said...

The Wapo is already highlighting Governor Perry as the devil incarnate.

Anyone who challenges the Usurper will get slimed. The Lefties can't win on issues and a strong Republican candidacy means possible coattails to make the Tea Partiers stronger than they already are in Congress.

Perry will lose the nomination. Romney will scrap through. But, he will lose the general. No one in the GOP can win against Obama and Biden. Why?

Here are a few reasons:

- The press is their champion. You cannot win w/o support. No one likes the GOP, except Fox.

- OB2 have vision: Make America Better.- OB2 have deliverables: Stimulus, Health care, etc.- OB2 have diversity: They represent all Americans.- OB2 have leadership: They are alert 24/7 for all Americans, take action during crises, etc.

No, when someone calls, WH answers, "how can we help?"

When someone calls GOP, they ask "show me the money".

GOP will be destroyed in 2012, so bad that they will not be able to be competitive till 2020. How to avoid then? Walk away. Give no money to the GOP. Change your party status. live in another country (Saudi Arabia, UK), etc.

My mom told me her mother would scrape the cops of corn, after they ate them, freeze them scrapes and make corn soup. They didn't have sweet corn back then. It was the same corn they feed the animals today.

She also told me my grandmother would cut the chickens heads off, gut them, singe them with a newspaper to get rid of the little feathers.

They would use the entire chicken for something. The feathers would be used to stuff pillows that my grandmother made. Neither of my parents grew up with indoor plumbing. They made bread with wheat they grew. Their food was all from the farm.

My dad told me they would cut wood for heat in the winter.

Their farm houses were minimal.

Each of my grandparents died with over a million dollars in cash and over 500 acres of incredibly valuable farm land in Wisconsin.

Everbody (cept W) in Texas was a Democrat back then. W is one of the reasons Texas is such a Red state now.

You gotta see and experience West Texas to know how true these stories are. People that live there (my brother) love it! Horizons, open spaces, Rednecks, drought, etc.! Most people will never understand West Texas or Ricky!

Wow. Coming out early and heavy on the red state theme. He's clearly going for the primary today. It's the obvious tack, but I thought he might have gone a little more general on this one, since it's his "first" on the national stage.

If Perry can keep a lid on his religious/evangelical stuff and low key the social issues, he may have a chance.

I don't deny anyone the right to have their religion, however, being President of the United States requires you to be the leader of people with many different religious viewpoints and different ideas on social issues.

The President and government in general should concentrate on foreign policy, domestic policy, economic policy and leave the social engineering out of it.

Like any announcement speech, nothing to get worked up about. His religious references were no more invasive than Obama's (the most obvious being the "God bless America" at the end).

Basically nothing on social issues, other than the Obamacare repeal reference. And given the latest appeals ruling, that may not even matter by the election.

After the first couple minutes, he dropped the primary rhetoric and went purely for general election talking points. Given that Perry can probably cakewalk the South and may only need to cherrypick a few states to get the momentum for the party nomination, this tactic probably makes sense. I think this is why he avoided Iowa: he doesn't have to get involved with the attacks/defenses within the party, e.g. Bachmann/Pawlenty.

He'll have to be careful not to overdo the dusty field ethos; most people can't relate to it. It's effective in doses, but he could easily paint himself as too rural to handle the job.

I think that Perry is pretty canny. He knows that no matter what people will associate him with Bush, so he's going to own the whole Texan cowboy theme.

I suspect his approach will be that Bush was never a real "conservative" or even a real "cowboy" and Perry will double down on it. He's been spending time at the shooting ranges with bloggers, he's made noises about states' rights and secession, and now he's doing the religious bit. This will get eaten up by all republicans except those in the north east and he will get the nomination that way.

I'd still prefer Paul Ryan, but Perry has done reasonably well for us in Texas and I'd vote for him with no qualms at this point.

The republican nominee will win no matter who it is because B. Hussein has not done anything to deserve a second shot and even democrats are seeing that now.

In a traditional, family-oriented small town like Paint Creek, you might find a few adult women who still look like adult women.

And of course they don't rely on the gummint for anything. If it doesn't rain, the crops fail and people starve.

What's that, Haskell County, where Paint Creek is located (and has a population of less than 7000) has received 232 million dollars in farm subsidies over the last 15 years. 22.8 % of the people in the county live in poverty (about 8 points worse than the country as a whole). I bet the local grocery takes food stamps, and lots of them.

I doubt anyone would be left in the county if it wasn't for Federal Government support.

His liability is that he's a social conservative. This should be offset a bit by his commitment to Federalism. That won't completely mollify libertarians, but will probably be enough to win in 2012. When it comes to the question of Perry vs. Romney, you'll find that Perry's Methodism is more palatable than Romney's Mormonism to most religious conservatives (who, no matter what they say, do in fact have an issue with Mormonism). I think Perry will take the nomination.

Texas can't secede. They were a state before the Civil War, and their secession didn't hold then. Besides, the agreement is that they can split apart to form up to 5 states if needed. Much as some Texans like to believe that secession is on the table, it's a rhetorical device only.

Thanks for all of those years of Clinton, then; and for Breyer, who we just recently rid ourselves of, and Ginsburg, who we still haven't; because Perot supporters were as responsible for Clinton as Clinton voters were.

Maybe you should leave the selection of the Republican nominee to actual Republicans.

madawaskan -- if Perry is anything like Zell Miller, my concerns are gone.

I'll have to listen to his speech. There are some of his social issues that turn me off--and more importantly turn off many independents needed to win. However, if the Dems attack his religion, we get to attack Jeremiah Wrightism!

And I trust the Paint Creek upbringing a lot more than the academic leftist upbringing of the One.

In 2008, a lot of Republicans assumed that Romney would be the nominee. McCain was the least common denominator and performed like one. I still thought he would win until the financial meltdown. After that, the GOP was toast.

Perry is problematic for me. He sounds like Bush and the religious thing could turn off a lot of independents. I still prefer Paul Ryan.

But he is not Tea Party. Perry is among the top political fund-raisers in the country, with a vast network of wealthy supporters eager to bankroll his presidential ambitions...

I haven’t read anywhere that the Tea Party bases it’s support on the ability or inability of a politician to raise money. As I understand the Tea Party it’s all about a politician’s attitude toward fiscal responsibility, limited government and keeping to the Constitution – not that he may or may not be good at raising money.

You have to have money to win a Presidential campaign. Prime time ads don’t grow on trees. I think the Tea Party probably understands this.

The republican nominee will win no matter who it is …

Dreamer. Complacent. Overconfident. Hubris.

Right now Perry is my choice. But I want to see how well he campaigns outside of Texas. I’ll be watching the primaries. I know this: Perry is a fighter. And he’s no Bush. Bush is Yale and Harvard, born to wealth; Perry is an Aggie raised on a farm.

Don't try this at home. Only the feathers from the belly of the bird are suitable for this. Using all of the feathers in a pillow will cause the feathers from the wings to poke an eye out. The feathers from the back are also useless.

Whoever wins the republican nomination is going to be for one nasty campaign--Obama has only a record of failure (except for bin laden). He has no significant accomplishments. He has to go negative and his minions are already sliming potential republican nominees--Obama will also try to run against a do nothing congress out of HST's playbook, but strategy puts all congressional incumbents less tea party supported at risk.

By all accounts Perry is a savvy campaigner and given texas politics I am sure he can handle the mud. Gonna be one nasty campaign.

Really? Assuming you're actually serious, this sounds like an ominous variant of that old line "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you". Americans would be better off (and our Republic would be much healthier) without all the "help".

AllenS - All the feathers have value for stuffing. You use a feather-chopper, and they have existed since medieval times. With oil-based replacement materials supplanting feathers, the larger feathers are still chopped up and used....

Much refed to the "NextGen!" chickens in feed pellets. Along with various pieces and parts even McDonalds won't put in their chicken nuggets.

Apollo -- I'd never heard that coyote story before. Having binged it, I see that Perry used a Ruger LCP in 0.380.

That's impressive: Because that little thing has an effective range of maybe 10 feet, you'd have to hit something the size of a coyote in the vitals or you'd just piss him off, and it's not that easy to get that close to a coyote (the closest I've ever been to one is 200 yards, but maybe they're less shy in Texas.)

I love this: "I will work every day to make sure that Washington DC is as inconsequential to your lives as possible."

Such a great line; surprising & refreshing rhetoric from a politician.

The polar opposite of Obama: whose imperium at D.C. was to be the panacea for all the world's ills, radically transforming our nation & all of our lives, intervening & affecting us in myriad ways from birth to death-- indeed, calling upon us to tranform ourselves & live up to His vision for us.

Cf. Michelle's chilling words: "[Obama] is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed."

By the same token, really hoping he lays off on the social conservative stuff.

IMO (agree with others) Paul Ryan might well be the best man for the job, given the specific economic straits our country's in. But like Lombardi Chick says: ABO. By that standard, Romney or Perry (I figure that's what it'll come down to) are more than good enough for me.

Perry is no conservative, and no Zell Miller. A big money man, with big money donors. Here's your red flag - he signed a big animal rights bill (animal rights not animal welfare) which will turn every hobby dog breeder into a commercial breeder with heavy regs. Why, because his big donors are bigtime animal rights. Don't be fooled. With half the new jobs in the entire country he couldn't even balance the budget.

Texas, because of Dubya, will be a loser on the ticket ... if the stupid club picks this idiot.

No, TX is the place where all the jobs are and everyone knows it. That's why it could be a winner.

Besides, a lot of people smiled at the "Miss Me Yet?" signs.

ironrailsironweights said...

In a traditional, family-oriented small town like Paint Creek, you might find a few adult women who still look like adult women.

Another reason to like him.

Freder Frederson said...

And of course they don't rely on the gummint for anything. If it doesn't rain, the crops fail and people starve.

Not starve, but a lot will have to move to find work.

Freder makes the same mistake most Lefties make. He judges everyone else by his own low standards.

What's that, Haskell County, where Paint Creek is located (and has a population of less than 7000) has received 232 million dollars in farm subsidies over the last 15 years. 22.8 % of the people in the county live in poverty (about 8 points worse than the country as a whole). I bet the local grocery takes food stamps, and lots of them.

I doubt anyone would be left in the county if it wasn't for Federal Government support.

The self-sufficient farmer is a myth.

Freder, of course, is an expert on agriculture, so he knows everything about them, but people like Freder can't wait to destroy them.

he's made noises about states' rights and secession

So Republicans are going to vote for someone who has seriously raised the possibility that Texas could, and maybe should, secede from the U.S.

Abe Lincoln must be spinning in his grave.

Of course, Freder loves Abe, the first statist President.

Considering the way Little Zero wants to drag down anyone who works or owns a business in this country, secession - legal under the Constitution - must appear attractive.

IMHO, when it's all about the economy stupid, Perry would make a huge error if he allowed the MSM to define him on social issues. Telling them he would redefine abortion gives them all the bullets they need.

OTOH, it appears the Left will somehow try to paint his poor upbringing against him, as if their definition of poverty is somehow a blight on Perry or Texas. That could be a huge mistake.

The GOP-TP battle will come down to a few key issues--really two: like, which candidate will gut the most Fed. programs AND their views on Witches. On the Witch issue, Bachmann's probably the leader (though Romney the Mormon does have the power of the Angel Moroni on his side). Perry will have to spew a great deal of fire and brimstone to catch up. BLOOD RED HEIFER,yall

I haven’t read anywhere that the Tea Party bases it’s support on the ability or inability of a politician to raise money. As I understand the Tea Party it’s all about a politician’s attitude toward fiscal responsibility, limited government and keeping to the Constitution – not that he may or may not be good at raising money.

To me the Tea Party means populist. You represent the voters. You are not a representative of the government class. You are not a representative of corporate interests.

Your typical politician sells off influence and makes back room deals. That's what Clinton did, and Bush, and Obama.

What concerns me about Perry is his status as #1 fundraiser. Who's giving him all that money?

Oil companies, probably, and other multinationals.

The only thing bad about the New York Times article was, as usual, their absolutely ideological blindness.

Like Obama doesn't have extensive corporate ties. Like Clinton and Gore didn't have fundraising parties all the frickin' time.

Corporations give to both candidates, a lot. They buy interest and then raid the public till.

Have you noticed that?

The lobbyist culture in D.C. sells influence.

We outlawed the frickin' light bulb because G.E. wants to charge us up the ass for their new light bulbs.

You want oil companies that are "too large to fail"?

Sarah Palin pissed off the oil companies. She cleaned up all the corruption in Alaska's corporate-government oligarchy. And the people of Alaska loved her.

We need the same thing to happen in D.C. We need the corporate and political interests who thrive in that cesspool to be pissed off.

And we need the people to be happy.

Our government is too big, and spending too much money, and politicians who spend all their time raising money are not the solution.

If you are sick of it, sick of the corruption and sick of the same D.C. crap, Sarah Palin is our best shot, in my opinion.

Isn't this a bit redundant? Doesn't one's decision and announcement that one intends to run for office presuppose a conviction that one will win?

I understand the statement is boilerplate self-promotion, expected of anyone engaged in any sort of competition--"I'm not here to make friends, I'm here to win!" is the standard pull quote we hear from every contestant on every television comptetition, from HELL'S KITCHEN to THE BACHLEORETTE and beyond--but isn't it a bit trite...at least by now?

C'mon Rick! Just out of the gate and you're already uttering banalities!

Ralph L: women dont shave in oregon and I suspect not much in madison.

Mr Cook: of course it platitudinous BS--Perry's a politician what do you expect--At least he didnt claim the oceans would cease to rise and the planet would begin to heal--now THERE is some major bullshit--if we edited pols use of such BS they would have nothing to say and their press releases and speaches would both last in minutes. :)

Totally OT, but Barry Goldwater, Alan Simpson, and President Truman were, IMO, probably the best plain spoken politicians. The story was told that Bess Truman was asked by a reporter why the President used the word "manure" so often in referencing other's political statements. Bess responded, "dear, it took me 40 years to teach him to say manure, and I am not going to change him now." god bless both Harry and Bess--they dont make them like that anymore.

Another know-nothin, Corporate-America lobbying Gov from Texas? The American People wont go along with this, they know better now. Looking at the Republican field, Im quite certain that Obama will get a second term.

Texas can split up into 5 states, but the kicker is that the new states only gain admission to the union on application and approval by the senate in the usual way. This was a sop to the abolitionists who were wary of the pro-slavery states, and didn't want them to be able to get the "free" representatives and senators on demand by just splitting Texas up.

This is a kicker because the new states don't *have* to apply for admission to the union after the split. It may not be secession in name, but it would be secession in fact, authorized by an international treaty that was approved by the senate and signed by the president.

Another know-nothin, Corporate-America lobbying Gov from Texas? The American People wont go along with this, they know better now. Looking at the Republican field, Im quite certain that Obama will get a second term.

@ MadisonMan: In Houston we have an ozone problem that's directly related to being a world center for petrochemical refining and processing. But of the ten worst ozone-polluted cities in the United States, Houston is only #8, and nine of the other ten, including all of the first seven, are in California. According to Forbes, California metros have the country's worst air, followed by Phoenix and Pittsburgh.

Overall, Houston is "ranked 68 for 24-hour particle pollution out of 277 metropolitan areas." So no, not the cleanest air in America; that would be Honolulu, followed by Fargo. Nice places, and I understand Fargo is actually experiencing a boom right now. But they have rather a different range and sort of opportunities than Houston. Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, between Dec. 2009 & Dec. 2010, for example, Houston (Harris County) had the largest gain in employment among the ten most populous counties in the United States. In that one year, in the midst of a national recession and skyrocketing unemployment, we created over 30,000 new jobs.

I've lived in Houston for 31 years now, and pollution plays no part in my daily life, nor in the daily lives of anyone I know. So yeah, they may be story-boarding anti-Perry stuff about Houston pollution, but it will be based on lies or exaggerations.

Regarding Gov. Perry and the puppy mill bill passed by the Texas Legislature's last session:

"Governor Perry signed HB 1451, the Large Scale Commercial Dog and Cat Breeder Bill, popularly known as the Puppy Mill Bill, into law on June 17, 2011. HB 1451 is a regulation and licensing measure for breeders and will provide basic protection for dogs and cats raised in breeding operations by providing humane housing standards, veterinary care, and inspections."

The statute, which will become Chapter 802 of the Texas Occupations Code, only applies to a "dog or cat breeder" who "possesses 11 or more adult intact female animals and is engaged in the business of breeding those animals for direct or indirect sale or for exchange in return for consideration and who sells or exchanges, or offers to sell or exchange, not fewer than 20 animals in a calendar year."

So I completely disagree with your assertion that "Perry is no conservative" because "he signed a big animal rights bill (animal rights not animal welfare) which will turn every hobby dog breeder into a commercial breeder with heavy regs." That's a false description of the statute and its consequences. Indeed, the regs haven't even been written yet, so you describing them as "heavy" cannot possibly be a well-informed statement.

As for Perry's "big donors" being "bigtime animal rights" advocates, I challenge you to provide a shred of substantiation for that claim. That sounds like something that could only be believed by someone who's been smoking really bad crack. PETA is still outraged that " Perry signed legislation allowing hunters to shoot pigs from helicopters," so they generally put him in the same category as they consider Sarah Palin.

Perry is, however, famous for vigorously protecting his own dog. I am looking forward to meeting a true conservative who doesn't think that's more indicative of Perry's basic makeup than his signature on the puppy mill bill.

@ LilEvie: You're also flat wrong in describing the puppy mill bill as an "animal rights not animal welfare" bill. It does not purport to give animals any legally enforceable rights, either directly or through human proxies. Whoever told you that either didn't know the difference or was lying to you. Rather, it requires commercial breeders to register to to submit to inspections before licensure and thereafter every 18 months to ensure that they're not engaging in animal cruelty. Inspectors can refer animal cruelty law violations to the local law enforcement authorities. There's a public data base maintained with violators' names to help people avoid patronizing past violators if they choose. And breeders are required to keep relevant records.

There's no right for anyone to bring a lawsuit or otherwise assert "animal rights." This bill is exactly about "animal welfare" and avoiding unnecessary cruelty, but it doesn't confuse animals with humans.

Perry does better than Romney WRT Tea Party, religious right, cultural conservatives, libertarians, federalists, anti ObamaCare, and environmental realists so Perry resonates with most voters on the Right much more than Romney. This most likely translates to Perry winning the GOP nomination.

Perry's Texas accent is probably a drawback for the national election because it makes it easier to tie him to Bush II.

Rubio would be the best VP choice because he is Hispanic and from a large swing state.

Alex Jones picked him as a future Repub nominee in the film EndGame when Perry was seen at a Bilderberg meeting several years ago. I thought the blog on him was almost deceptive in that the words spoken by Ballard sprinkle onto Perry as if they were his own. Makes him seem real down homey. I don't trust the man.love ya, josephearl

If he was an entrepreneur, that would be awesome. Becoming a millionaire while you're "working for the people," less awesome. Perry made almost a million dollars off a land deal while he was governor.

Myself, I don’t begrudge anyone, including politicians, for trying to make a profit. Every American has a right to get ahead if they can. But Perry is not what I would call immensely wealthy. His net worth is about 2 million – not a huge sum by today’s standards. He has disclosed his income tax returns for every year he has held office.

I read the land deal story. It beaks down to this:

In 2000 Fraser bought a lot valued at 300,000. A year later he sells the lot to Perry for $310,762. Six years later Perry sells the lot for $1.15 million. Pretty pedestrian stuff. Happens all the time in real estate. All this was before the real estate bubble burst. I don’t see anything to be suspicious about.

In my opinion the story, originally run in the Dallas Morning News and repeated pretty much verbatim by other news outlets, was a hit job, rife with implication and innuendo but with no substance. It was no doubt designed to help Perry’s opponent, endorsed by the newspaper, in the election happening at that time. Nothing illegal or even immoral occurred so the story died a quick and deserved death.

Perry pretty much drives the Texas liberal newspapers, which are most of the major Texas newspapers, crazy, another reason I like him. They dislike his conservative ways and they’ll do anything to bring him down. No doubt the NYT, LAT, and the other usual suspects will imitate them should Perry become the GOP nominee. Or maybe even before. Chris Matthews is highly disturbed by Perry, which is the next thing to an endorsement for me. I think the Progressives do not want Perry to become the nominee. They would probably prefer Romney, Bachmann or their best case scenario, Pawlenty.

Perry is a little like Palin. The more they try to squash him the stronger he becomes. The GOP Old Guard and the Left both hate him, major newspapers endorse his opponents but the Texas voters always give him a win. He is an excellent campaigner.